Life In Rio
by Rehtribution
Summary: Nico finds himself yearning to leave everything behind and stay in Rio. But can he leave his family and everything he's ever known to sing with a bird he's just met?
1. Chapter 1

So! I haven't typed anything in a while, or written anything for that matter. I've wanted to write something for a while but haven't had the chance or motivation to do so. Rio's been out for a little while now and I just re-watched it yesterday and found that I absolutely love Nico and Pedro. So this story came out of nowhere and I'm not sure where it will end up.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rio, I can only wish that I did...

There was something about Rio that always called to the young canary that was stuck in a cage with his parents and older brother. Every year they would be taken to Rio with their humans and every year Nico sneaked away to enjoy the sights and, more importantly, Samba. Samba, since he was first taken to Rio, had quickly become his passion. He listened to it when he could find it on his human's radio and when he couldn't he sang it. His parents and even his brother, Victor, didn't understand why he loved it so much.

"I can hear you thinking from here Nico. What's going on?" Victor murmured, careful of their parents asleep a peg above them.

"I'm just excited. I want to stay in Rio, I want to live there." His eyes started shining with eagerness.

"Well it's your lucky day then bro. Our humans decided to move to Rio. If you hadn't been so busy singing that Bamba stuff you would've heard."

Nico gaped. It wasn't possible. There was absolutely no way the humans decided to live in Rio.

"It's _Samba. You're_ not pulling my tail feathers again are you?" Better safe than sorry after all.

"Of course not, we're seriously staying." He paused before continuing. "For a month."

Nico felt his anger boil up. "That's not funny!"

Of course his parents woke up.

"What did you do this time Victor..." Their mother asked, fluttering to their peg. He hated that cage.

"I didn't do anything! Shorty here-"

Their mother hissed. "Don't call your brother that."

"Fine, _Nico_ here wanted to know how long we were staying so I told him. He just overreacted. Right _Nico?_"

Their mother didn't notice but Nico could hear the underlying threat.

"Yeah. I overreacted. Sorry for waking you guys up."

Their mother stared at them for a little while longer, finally sighing into the too cold air of the luggage storage area.

"Alright. Just try to keep quiet you two. We should get there soon."

Somehow, Nico knew it was to placate his brother that she said that. A bored Victor was nothing to laugh at.

While their mother flew back to join her mate and Victor settled down to sleep, Nico found himself lost in his thoughts again. Rio was a beautiful place with a forest that he was only ever able to see from the distance. While he wouldn't admit it to anyone, he was afraid to go into the forest alone. Who knew what kind of reception he would get. They could welcome him like family, or they could attack him like an enemy. He was too afraid to see Rio as anything else than a paradise to chance the latter.

Glancing at his sleeping family and the mass of suitcases surrounding them, he settled down on his side of the peg to sleep.

He hated this cage.

Pedro stretched along his nest and looked to the other side of the hollow. There was a spare nest he had built as a just in case measure. He had thought that the nest would make the hollow look a little more full or even just a little more homey. All it had done so far was make it look even more empty and borderline desperate. Rafael visited when he could, but he had two kids and another on the way.

Dragging himself from bed, Pedro grumbled to himself and flew out to get ready for the day. It was a little after noon and he needed to get something to eat.

Gliding towards the beach and frowning at the heat that was wafting from below, Pedro let a feeling of calm overtake him. Something was going to change that day, he could feel it.

The plane landed roughly and jolted Nico from his sleep and his perch. He fluttered, it's hard to actually fly in a cage, up to the top perch and gripped onto it tightly. Everything shook and bounced while the plane tried to slow down.

Nico was finally in Rio again. His heart leaped into his throat and his excitement coursed through his body, warming him from the freezing air around him.

Nico glanced at his disgruntled family and smiled a bit. He planned on spending his vacation his way, not theirs. Theirs consisted of waiting for the humans to get back so they could talk to them. His, well, his consisted of whatever he wanted it too.

The plane slowed to a stop and the hatch was opened, letting the neon vested humans toss the cargo onto the belt to be transferred to the baggage claim. Nico pressed himself closer to the peg he was on, wrapping his wings around it to stabilize himself more for the trip to come. When one of the humans finally got to them, somewhere in the middle of the sea of suitcases, the man sighed and picked up the cage with the utmost care. When he got to the hatch, where the four birds were momentarily blinded from the onslaught of light, he put the cage on the belt and their adventure began.

Nico was given about five minutes of scenery before they were driven off with the rest of the luggage to another, more numerous, set of belts. This was why Nico hated planes.

The belt led them onto another belt and from there a slide. Then they were pulled onto another belt and promptly hit by a black suitcase, knocking all four of them askew. Even though he was hanging onto his peg for dear life, Nico was knocked to the side and had to hang on by his wings.

"I hate airports..." Nico smiled at the agreeing murmurs below him.

Pedro whistled to himself, still trying to find the words to the song he had been creating. It was hard. Every time he thought he had a part of it, it felt wrong. That, and it sounded like a duet and he would happily be the backup singer for it if he could just find someone to help him with it. Rafael was an okay singer but his voice didn't have the tune he needed it too.

Swallowing a couple more fries from the leftovers some tourists had left, Pedro took off from the table, heading towards one of the clubs he'd frequented. The Branch was the most popular club in all of Rio for birds. A lot of its fame was because of Pedro himself in fact. At night the club was Samba only, but during the day it was karaoke for anyone who wanted to give it a go. There were a few that were kind of good. The rest however, not so much.

Glancing up at a landing plane Pedro smirked. More tourists meant more fries and he could appreciate free french fries.

Rafael carefully tiptoed out of his family hollow. His kids and wife, Eva, were, thankfully, preoccupied and if he could get lunch quickly enough, he might be able to go out and enjoy himself for a while.

Gliding a fair distance away before chancing a flap, Rafael began his search for his family's meal. His search was only deterred by a plane flying overhead from America. He'd have to check if any new birds were coming to visit. Some of them wanted away from the pet life and he seemed to be the one to help them out. It was hard being famous sometimes.

Nico glared at the 12-year-old picking up their square cage. He glanced away when he saw a scarlet macaw perched in the rafters above them, watching them carefully. Canaries must not have been a common occurrence around there.

"Hey Nico, I dare you to sing." Victor whispered to him, a smirk on his beak.

"What? No way, the humans will freak out again saying that I'm 'such a pretty bird'!"

"That's why I want you to sing retard. I_ dare_ you."

Nico groaned. If he refused Victor would call him a coward for weeks and not to mention the beatings.

"Fine."

Victor snickered and scooted away while Nico took a breath and started to sing his song, Fly Love.

Pedro swooped across the sky, enjoying the 90 degree weather and the faint breeze from the nearby ocean. His whistling paused and he glanced around, a pleasant tune brought from the breeze.

"-Don't know how it happened, don't know why but you don't really need a reason-"

The voice was soft and was, more or less, absolutely perfect. It was _the _voice. The one he needed for his song.

Listening hard, Pedro was able to find a summer house with the door open. Inside the house, he was able to see from the window ledge he landed on, there was a square cage with three yellow birds and a white one inside. One of the yellow boys had orange on his eyelids and a white chest and under wings. The tips of his wings and the ends of his tail feathers had brown on them. He was singing with his eyes closed and his yellow feathers were vibrant unlike the other two who had black on the tips of every feather. The white one seemed to be the mother and what looked like the father were watching the singing bird with pride. The last bird seemed to be snickering as the humans were saying "What a pretty bird."

The singing bird didn't seem to notice, singing and dancing as much as he could with out falling off of the peg he was restricted to.

As the song came to a close the singing bird blinked and glanced around before bowing his head and shuffling his feet.

Seemed that the singer had stage fright. With the way that, possibly, his brother was laughing he didn't blame the poor guy. Anyone would feel embarrassed if someone was laughing so hard they couldn't breathe.

Taking one last glance at the shy bird, who he thought looked up for a moment, Pedro took off towards the Branch. He'd have to come back with Rafael to get him out later.

Nico shuffled his feet for a bit before glancing up at the window, blinking at a red crested cardinal. He seemed...intrigued for lack of a better word. As the humans walked off Nico fluttered to the side of the cage, clinging to the bars. Victor was still laughing and he wanted nothing more than to leave that cage and never go back. But his family would never agree with him and he felt bound to them. Besides, without them he was alone.

Waiting for the humans to retreat to their beds, he carefully unlatched the cage door and opened it.

"You're not doing this again are you?" His mother asked, frowning. She was born and raised in a cage. The moment Rico had found out how to open it, he had gone everywhere in the human's house and was happy with the somewhat freedom. The consequences, however, nearly made him completely break down.

"It's not that bad. Besides, we've been in this cage_ forever_ I need to stretch my wings for a little while."

Before they could reply, he had dove from the cage and glided out the door and onto the sidewalk.

Rio. He was finally in Rio. Even though his family was completely against his views, he would do what he wanted. Speaking of which, where was that cardinal?

Looking at the window he frowned. The cardinal was gone. Glancing at the sun blazing in the sky, Nico found himself flying towards the beach.

Pedro frowned, landing a few blocks away from the yellow bird with the perfect voice. He should have sneaked into the home and asked his name or something. He probably seemed like a stalker now.

Snorting, Pedro continued his flight to the Branch, chuckling to himself. The bird probably didn't even want to leave that cage.

First chapter done! How's it look? It's unbeta'd so sorry for any mistakes. My birthday's today so I'll try to update but I'm also moving soon so I'm not sure when I'll get the chance next.

For a few notes, if anyone has any idea how to format this better, let me know. I seriously need to flesh everything out more but I feel extremely lazy at the moment :P.

I could make this a PedroxNico fic or I could just have them as adoptive brothers. In your reviews tell me what you want and I'll tally them until the 29th.

No flames please! But reviews are much appreciated :)


	2. Chapter 2

Woot! It's an update!

Disclaimer: I don't own Rio

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Rafael frowned at the scarlet macaw's words. It seemed that there was a family of canaries that had landed in Rio and one of them seemed to fit the bill of a "free bird".

"Thanks Mikah. I'll go see if I can find this canary. Pedro might get some competition from this one if he's as good as you say."

Mikah grinned and nodded. "He's amazing. He must have been trained or something."

With a few last parting words the two flew off in different directions, one to the airport and the other towards the beach.

Nico landed on a less populated area of the beach, stretching his wings in the salt spray. It was nice to get away from his nightmare of a brother. Victor had his moments of course, but he was mostly a bully and the one causing most of his injuries. Victor had been the only one to stay with their parents from his clutch and the story was the same for Nico. They were just the lucky birds it seemed.

Ruffling his feathers in the humid temperatures, Nico jumped into the air, soaring above the thousands of umbrellas that humans had put up. He was the only bird left of both clutches that sang. It was kind of annoying, seeing as the humans had made him their favorite because of it.

"Hey pipsqueak!"

Nico sped up a bit, choosing to ignore the insulting remark. Thinking back on the situation, that was probably the worst thing he could have done in his position. It wasn't 10 seconds afterward that he was grabbed by his tail feathers and thrown to the sand. The velocity sent him plummeting too fast for him to correct himself and he ended up with a beak full of sand.

"Aww, I'm sorry. Did that hurt?"

Nico glanced back to see a group of seagulls surrounding him, one of which seemed to be the leader. They were all snickering at him and murmuring to each other.

"We haven't seen you around here before pipsqueak. Are you lost?"

The faked caring was getting to Nico. He wasn't having the best day.

"My name is Nico you crooked beaked scavengers!"

By the shocked looks he got as he stood up, no one really did that to them.

"You're gonna get it pipsqueak."

Somehow, Nico didn't think they meant a free tour.

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Pedro couldn't help but sigh in relief when the final bird left the stage. They had a serious hearing problem if they thought screeching unintelligible words at the top of their lungs was singing.

"Pedro! Are you singing tonight?"

Pedro looked at the macaws walking over to him. Schooling his look into one of uncaring calm, he shook his head.

"I'm not in the mood."

The sad looks that he received stroked his ego just a little bit.

"Soon though? We want to hear that new song." A green macaw said, nodding with a hyacinth macaw and a scarlet macaw.

Pedro shrugged and walked off, leaving the three to gossip with some nearby honeycreepers. It was hard when you got a reputation. You had to change how you act in public so that you didn't lose any reputation.

The Branch would take around an hour to set up for the nightly Samba raves so, walking out of the club, Pedro flew up to a nearby roof to sunbathe. The yellow bird earlier really did have the perfect voice but he couldn't just fly up and demand the bird to sing with him. He'd have to get to know the bird, see how he did in front of a crowd of birds. There was a lot of details that he couldn't look over and with the competition coming up, he wasn't sure if he could get everything done in time.

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Rafael kept his eyes peeled for a little yellow bird along the shoreline. One of his contacts had reported him flying this way and the beach was a huge place. The number of tourists never seemed to diminish throughout the year and the umbrellas never seemed to leave. Getting into a less populated area of the beach, he frowned at a group of seagulls.

It was weird to see seagulls on the ground, especially so many away from any food. Unless...

Diving down to the group of seagulls, Rafael started yelling.

"What do you guys think you're doing!"

The group looked up at him and were about to go back to whatever they were so enthralled with before they recognized him. The reaction would be something he would have to tell his kids when they were older because seeing a good six full grown seagulls trip over themselves to get away from him was hilarious.

The damage they had done, however, was not.

In the middle of where all the gulls had gathered was a bloody and beaten canary, his eyes clenched tightly against whatever the seagulls had inflicted on him.

Rafael sighed and put a wing over his face. He would have to talk to a couple contacts about this one to "deal" with the seagulls.

Fluttering over to the canary, he lowered his voice to a whisper. "Hey, are you alright?"

Nico barely had a chance. The seagulls had dove at him too quickly for him to escape their circle around him and all he could do was curl up and protect as much of himself as he could.

He was shocked when he heard their feet digging into the sand in an attempt to get away from something. He didn't think that he could handle anything that could scare off six seagulls.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Nico carefully cracked one of his eyes open, flinching when he saw a toucan hovering over him.

"Y-yeah..." Nico murmured, slowly righting himself. He hissed in pain, discovering the cuts and bruises that he hadn't really felt before.

"Come on, we need to get you fixed up. And don't worry, they won't bother you anymore. You are officially a friend of Rafael. And Rafael knows everybody."

Nico couldn't help but chuckle, that made a little more sense. For all those gulls to hightail it away from him because of a toucan seemed a little farfetched. But a toucan with a reputation might do it.

"I'm Nico. I was brought down here from the-"

"United States at about 12 this afternoon. Come on tourist, hop on my back." Rafael turned and lowered his wings for Nico, who was chuckling.

"You really do know everyone." He shook his head. "I can fly myself."

"I'm sure you can, but you'll end up making those cuts worse before we can make them better. Don't worry, I give my kids rides all the time."

Nico sighed and crawled onto Rafael's back, unwilling to draw out the inevitable.

"How many kids do you have?"

Rafael lifted off, careful of Nico and started gliding towards the bird sanctuary. "Two and another on the way. I don't know what number we'll stop at, but I was thinking about five. Any more would be a nightmare."

"Where are we going?"

Rafael hummed for a moment, thinking about his answer. "The sanctuary. There's this crazy human there that treats all kinds of birds for whatever injuries or illnesses they have. He's a real nutcase, trying to learn how to speak our language."

Nico frowned. That didn't sound like a place of healing at all, especially with a crazy calling the shots. But whatever floats your boat really.

Rafael landed in front of a pair of doors with a bird logo on them, lowering his wings so Nico could get off.

"This is the place?" Nico slid off, careful of Rafael's wings.

"Yep. This is it. I'll come get you tonight. Good luck!" With that, Rafael flew off. It wasn't long after that a man with unkempt brown hair walked out. He had glasses on and a white coat. He immediately saw Nico and the yellow bird started backing up a bit.

Tulio sipped at his coffee, smiling at a recovering bird. They had saved quite a few that month and over half were already back in the wild. He frowned when he heard distant squawking. Listening closely, he heard a final loud squawk from a toucan and frowned. That toucan had been doing that for a while, squawking and leaving an injured bird outside his doors. He supposed it was efficient though.

Tulio quickly put down his coffee and ran to the doors, opening them to see a fleeing toucan and a...canary? When the little bird started backing up, he shushed it and scooped his hands under the bird. It was bleeding and looked exhausted.

He hurried inside and set the bird down on a folded up piece of cloth, filling a bowl with water and picking up another rag to wash off the blood.

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Pedro hummed the tune for his new song, still unable to come up with the words. He had a few lines, but he couldn't get the rest. The song was going to be called "Hot Wings" though. He glanced up at an incoming object and waved, standing up.

"Hey Raffy! Where you been hiding?"

The toucan landed next to him and stretched, smiling.

"You know, kids, helping canaries, the usual."

"Hold up. Canaries?"

"Yep. Some kid got ganged up on by those seagulls. He's a tourist it looks like."

"He a 'free bird'?"

Rafael nodded and grinned. "He hasn't said anything, but he didn't say anything about his family or his owners more importantly. He gave me his name and said he was from the states, but that's all."

"Is he the one that was singing?" Pedro asked, grinning.

Rafael nodded and the cardinal cheered. "Yes! You've gotta take me to see him!"

Rafael shrugged. "Sure. He'll probably still be a little shaken up though. He got six of them."

"Someone needs to do something about those gulls, they're causing a lot of problems."

"Already done. I sent some branch frequenters after them. Said that they beat up a singer."

"Nicely done Raffy. You up for some french fries? You're never away from Eva and the kids."

The two got up in silent agreement and flew towards their favorite restaurant.

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Nico settled down on the soft cloth he was on. He would take this over a peg any day. That Tulio guy was pretty funny. Though, Nico probably shouldn't have messed with him so much. Nico had taught him how to defer dominance. It was all a lie, but the guy seemed happy. And Nico wasn't willing to try to communicate again.

He found himself going in and out of consciousness for the remainder of the evening. Tulio had done a pretty good job with cleaning the cuts and fixing them. There was only one that was kind of deep and it was on his chest.

"Hey, Nico. Pssssst!"

Nico got to his feet and went over to the window where the voice was coming from.

"Hey Rafael!" The window swung open and the toucan went over to him.

"So you're name's Nico?"

Nico looked over at the other voice and frowned. "You're the bird from earlier."

"My name's Pedro. I'm the best singer at the Branch."

Nico frowned. He seemed really cocky, and he wasn't a fan of birds like that.

"The best huh? So what's the Branch?"

Rafael frowned. "The Branch is the most popular bird club in all of Rio. We'll take you there tomorrow."

Nico found himself grinning. "Sounds like a plan."

Rafael offered his back again and Nico got onto him, not missing the concerned look he got from Pedro. Seemed he wasn't completely "holier than thou".

They lifted off and Pedro took to flying behind Rafael. "So what kind of music do you like?"

Nico looked back at him. "Samba of course. There's nothing else like it." Nico found himself smiling. "Ever since I first came to Rio I've been in love with it."

"What would you do if I asked you to sing with me at the Best of the Branch?"

Nico found that Pedro's voice lowered as he asked the question. Was he nervous? "Well, you'd have to ask me first bird." Nico smiled.

Pedro sputtered for a minute before choking out the question. "Will you sing at the Branch with me...please?"

Nico had to suppress the urge to laugh. This bird was a riot. He must not have had many friends. Nico didn't either, but he also wasn't popular. "Of course Pedro, it sounds like fun."

After that, the two had started talking to each other, asking everything from favorite famous birds to favorite color. They found a schedule for when they could meet up to practice, and even started working on the song and choreography.

When they landed in front of the summer house Nico was stuck in, both birds weren't happy to have to part. They had promised to meet up at 10 since Nico's humans would be gone by then. They helped Nico into the house and said their final goodbyes for the night.

Nico flew over to the cage and expertly got inside. His family was sound asleep and he quickly balanced on his peg and fell asleep with them. Tomorrow was going to be a big day after all.

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Chapter 2 is done! You guys can vote again for every chapter I put up until the 29th.

So far the count is:

Slash: 0

Brothers:3

Thanks so much for the reviews you guys!

Anon:Smilee

LadyoftheSunlight

Trixabella Pixximist

Witch08

You guys made my day!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Rio

If any of you wonderful people are having a bad day and need cheering up, watch Pedro try to "set the mood" in French and Spanish. Funniest. Thing. Ever.

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Nico made sure to look like he was still asleep until the humans were gone. If they had seen the bandages... He didn't even want to think of what would happen.

"Wake up Nico, you should eat something." The soft voice of his mother said, nudging him.

He sidestepped and nodded, fluttering down to the bin of seeds they were given. Nothing could ruin this day for him. He'd made a friend yesterday and they were going to sing together. It would be his first time singing with someone and he wanted nothing more than to dance his way out the door. He heard a horrified gasp and swallowed the seeds he had, glancing back at his wide-eyed mother.

"What happened to you!"

That, of course, got the attention of his brother and father. The bandage on his chest was tinged a slight pink, but nothing too shocking.

"You know, just an accident. I got fixed up though."

His mother began ranting about how he wasn't allowed outside anymore and he promptly ignored her. A tapping at the window had everyone's attention and stopped his mother mid sentence.

The window opened and Pedro stepped into the house, grinning.

"You ready to go Nico?"

Nico quickly unlatched the cage door and dove out before his family could stop him.

"I'll be back later!" He flew over to the window sill, wincing at how flying pulled at his scabs. His mother started to protest but the two flew off before she could get a word out of her throat.

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The two stopped in an alley and immediately started going over the beat that Pedro had come up with. There were eight regular beats followed by three going in a rapid dum da di sound.

"Well, it sounds like a party song right? You know, something that just makes you wanna dance. So let's start with something like, I wanna party."

The next three hours went something like that, skipping around to different parts and sound effects they could add. They finally had to take a break when Pedro's stomach rumbled loudly in the middle of part of the song.

"Lunch time?" Nico asked, chuckling when the cardinal, grinned in joy.

"Have you ever had a french fry?"

If the blank look he received was anything to go by, that was a no. However, you've never seen a bird smile so big at the implied answer.

"Oh man! You're in for a treat!" Pedro said. He took off into the air, with a smiling Nico behind him.

The canary shook his head and the two landed at a restaurant, an abandoned, half-eaten, tray of golden-brown sticks left on a table. Pedro went straight for them, grabbing what Nico supposed must have been a "french fry" and holding it out to the landing canary.

"Eat it, you'll never be able to look at any other food the same way again."

While his explanation seemed a little exaggerated, Nico took the fry anyway and bit off part of it. Exaggerated or not, Nico was never going back to seeds again. The fry was gone before either of them could blink.

"You weren't kidding!"

Pedro laughed and the two polished off the last of the fries. Something shiny caught Nico's eye and he got up and walked over to it. It was a bottle cap. It was green on top with blue wavey lines and a straight blue line around the side. It didn't look bent or anything.

Grabbing the cap, Nico examined it, tapping the top and rim. The sound produced was nice and light. It was subtle but called for attention at the same time.

"You gonna use that for a hat or something?" Pedro asked, walking over to him.

That actually wasn't a bad idea... Putting the cap on, he grinned. "Do I look Brazilian?"

Pedro cupped his red chin and examined the yellow canary, who decided to strike a pose. "It suits you." Pedro nodded, all business. The two were able to keep up the serious atmosphere for a few more seconds before the two fell onto the table laughing.

"That was funny..." Nico panted. "But really now, what do you think?" He tilted the cap a bit and sat up.

"Nah, it really does suit you. Makes you look...classic kinda."

"Good, cause I'm using it at that Twig thing."

"Branch. And what do you mean use it?"

"Tambourine kind of instrument." He tapped a beat on the cap and hummed a bit before putting it back on his head.

"Good idea! Come on man, let's go to the Branch, you gotta show your moves to be able to perform in the Best of the Branch."

Nico stopped dead in his tracks. "Wait. Now? As in, right now?"

"Well yeah, how else will you be able to perform in front of an audience? Besides, there usually isn't that many birds around there at this time of the day. You'll do fine Nico." He pulled the smaller bird into a one-armed hug and let go before they both plummeted.

Nico was grateful for the support, and the hug calmed him a surprising amount, but he didn't know what he would sing. Fly love didn't seem like a good song for a club, so he was lost. Maybe that Moving Mountains one he heard one of the humans listening to?

He adjusted the cap and frowned. Pedro could have given him a bit more of a warning. Though, he probably wouldn't have gotten any sleep, at least he would know what he was going to sing. In front of birds. A _lot _of birds. All watching him...

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea, I'm not even that good."

Pedro laughed and flew closer to him. "You're awesome man! Come on, just one song and then you'll be in the running for the best and we can perform together. You can do this Nico."

Nico took a deep breath. Yeah, he could do this. One song and he didn't have to do it ever again. That was all. "Yeah, yeah I can do this."

"Of course you can!"

"Just one quick song."

"Yep. Do that one you were singing when you first got here."

"What! I can't do that! Everyone will laugh at me."

"That's exactly why you gotta do that one, that other bird is the reason why you have stage fright. Those humans don't help either. Besides, I haven't heard the whole deal yet."

That was his _worst _song though! And his brother was always telling him how horrible it was. But if Pedro really wanted him too... "You have to promise to help me if I do it."

Pedro nodded, not seeming to give it much thought. "Of course! There's no way I wouldn't help you out. I'll be behind you on one of the instruments."

The two landed on a building overlooking the Branch and Nico fiddled with his bottle cap, ignoring the twinge of pain in his chest.

"What if they laugh at me?"

"Then I'll knock them into next week! Come on, we'll get you signed up for a place in line and see how it goes. Oh, and before we go in, I have this...reputation. I'm gonna act weird, alright?"

"But you'll still be up on stage with me right?"

Pedro patted him on the back. "Of course I will! Besides, you're gonna be the next new hot wing on Rio's markets. Can't have you taken away after we've just become friends."

Both of them paused. They hadn't called each other friends yet. Somehow, the word seemed to make it even more real. Nico had made his first friend, and the feeling was absolutely amazing.

"Let's go get me signed up, can't stand around here all day." They laughed and glided down to the entrance, walking inside.

The club was amazing. Nico's jaw dropped and he tried to take in everything at once. There were birds here and there, not all that many, but they were all mostly talking to each other. A bird walked onto the stage and the small crowd's attention was immediately brought to the bird.

The music changed and the bird opened its mouth...only to emit the most horrifying sound Nico's ever heard. You couldn't hear the music, or the lyrics. Just one steady screech that changed in pitch and volume at random times.

Nico groaned. "What _is _that?"

Pedro laughed, glancing around. "Singing. Or at least what that bird thinks is singing. That one's a regular here. Uh oh, careful Nico. Here they come." Pedro's facial expression changed from open and happy to distant and stoic in the time it took Nico to blink.

"It's Pedro!" A couple birds ran over to them and Nico immediately sneaked behind Pedro, hiding from the, possibly, dangerous birds. After the seagulls, he wasn't willing to chance anything. He rubbed his chest at the memory.

"Are you going to sing tonight?"

"Are you going for the Best of the Branch again?"

And so on. The birds kept spouting off questions at a rapid fire pace, not giving Pedro a chance to answer even if he wanted to. Geez, no wonder he kept an image up. If all those birds turned on him... nowhere in Rio would be safe.

"Leave Pedro alone you guys, he's probably here to see some of the tryouts."

The voice came from a spoonbill swan, who was ushering away the over excited birds.

The moment they were gone, Pedro turned to Nico and patted his shoulder. "You alright?"

Nico nodded. "They surprised me is all."

Pedro frowned but nodded, leading the smaller bird over to a flinching yellow parrot.

"Hey Diego!"

The parrot looked up and grinned, running over to them. "Please tell me you're here to perform Pedro!"

"Nope. He is." Pedro pushed an unwilling Nico forward and Diego frowned.

"You sure? He's kind of..."

"Talented? I know. His name's Nico so put him in line."

Nico tried to back up. "Pedro man, we could just do it another time you know. Like, in a week?"

"Come on, it's not that bad."

The screeching bird finally stopped and Diego grabbed Nico. "Nothing can be worse than that."

Nico was tossed onto the stage, his bottle cap askew. Pedro flew over to the guitar-like instrument and nodded in reassurance to the canary. Nico fixed his bottle cap and, as the ear shattering bird left the stage, went to the center. He could almost hear everyone wince.

Nico found himself looking back to Pedro again, and saw him motioning him to start. With a deep breath, he started the first part, whistling the tune before starting into words.

As the song ended, Nico came back to his senses and pulled his bottle cap back onto his head, looking fearfully at the wide-eyed audience. They weren't wincing, that was good right? Oh geez, he probably blew it and he'd never get to sing with Ped-

The crowd's cheering drowned out any doubt from his mind. They were clapping their wings and shouting. All for him. Was he really that good? He looked back at Pedro, who was hidden from the crowd by the lighting. Pedro was joining the crowd with his own cheering. Was this what it was like to be famous?

Nico's heart lodged itself into his throat and he quickly left the stage, an excited Pedro stealthily following him.

"Did you see that! You did great!" Pedro pulled Nico into a bear hug, smothering the little canary.

"Pedro...choking...smother...gah!"

Pedro quickly dropped the canary into a heap, looking over his cuts really quick. The deep one had re-opened a little bit, but it was nothing serious.

Nico started gasping for air the moment he hit the floor, chuckling weakly. There was a big possibility that Pedro had been more excited than he was.

Deigo ran over to the two, his mouth open in awe. "You're in! The Best of the Branch competition is at the end of the month!"

Pedro grinned. "We're doing a duet."

Diego paused. "But you've always refused to have a partner, what's different?"

Pedro picked up Nico and dusted him off. "Well, Nico's my friend. That's what's different."

Diego lowered his voice. "You know _they_ won't be happy about this."

"They? Who's they?"

"My fans. I'm supposed to be the perfect idol you know? I have to be distant and uncaring and all. And I absolutely can't have a partner. They come up with all these things I have to do to be perfect." Pedro rubbed the back of his head.

"Then we'll make the competition your 'coming out' party. You'll show them how you really are and if they can't accept it, you don't need them. They're not that important."

Diego and Pedro stared at the canary. "What?" Nico asked.

"You just blew off hundreds of birds you realize."

"So? It's not like they would take the time to talk to me when I'm just another bird in the crowd. Geez you guys. Fame isn't everything."

Pedro nodded, grinning. "Let's do it. The competition will be my 'coming out' party. Besides, who needs fans when you have friends?"

Nico only hoped that he could make it to the competition. The date was extremely close to when he was going to leave.

"The competition is on the 28th Nico. It starts at seven in the morning and ends at noon. The rest of the day and night is announcing the winner, an encore, and then just dance." Diego said, walking off.

Nico felt a rock hit his stomach. The dates weren't just extremely close, they were the same day close. What had he gotten himself into?

(horror music plays) What has Nico gotten himself into? A lot. How will Pedro feel when he finds out?

Ah... I love that new chapter smell...

Alright, some guys have been working nearby and it's causing my power to spontaneously go out. My poor laptop needs a new battery so I've been plugged in and have been hesitant to work on this today.

Okay, first the thank you's!

HTTYD and Rio forever

Trixabella Pixximist

KhallieGurl

Witch08

imginarygirl

Amary22

Secret170193

WolfonFyre

Thank you all soooo much! You guys literally brought tears to my eyes :)

Here's the count so far:

Brothers: 7

Slash: 3

Just in case you didn't see it at the top: Watch Pedro 'set the mood' in French and Spanish. You won't regret it I swear!

This chapter kind of drawled on in my opinion, I need like...revenge of the seagulls or something.


	4. Author's note!

Author's note!

Alright. I've started thinking of sequel ideas and I have a poll on my profile so if you have the time go and vote please!

I've realized that I've been updating a lot faster than I thought I was going to be able to. So, to remedy my problem I'm going to have to end the voting within the next 2 chapters. So far it looks like brothers are going to win, but you never know.

On another note, go check out Khalliegurl's stories. She's the one that I got the name for the Branch and the Best of the Branch from.

I haven't started the next chapter yet though I might later today. I'm moving in two days though so things are a tad hectic. Dang me and my last minute tendencies :P


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own. If I did, Nico and Pedro would have a whole lot more screen time.

Nico was barely able to sleep that night. He had to stay with his family, they were all he had besides Pedro. But the cage... It was torture. To be able to see the wind play with the trees but not be able to fly through the falling leaves. There was nothing worse. So he'd stay in Rio. But his mother... he hated it when she cried, and he didn't know when he would be able to see them again if he stayed.

Fingering his bottle cap, he smiled. He couldn't abandon Pedro. He'd stay. No matter what. Besides, he could find his way home when he needed to.

Letting himself fall into the awaiting arms of unconsciousness, he couldn't help but smile. Everything would work out.

* * *

><p><p>

The first thing Nico was able to register when he woke up was that it was hard to breathe. Everything else fell into place almost immediately after. His family was gone and he was on the floor of their cage. His eyes were blurry and every breath burned. It was much hotter than usual and he felt weak. Pulling himself up, his hopes died. The summer house was on fire.

* * *

><p><p>

Pedro stretched against his nest happily. It was going to be a perfect day. For once, it wasn't very hot out. Fluttering down to the pond, he took a quick bath to wash away the grime he had gathered. He and Nico were going to go eat together before practice, seeing as Nico refused to eat those mixed seeds anymore.

A few birds chittered happily nearby, fluffing their feathers in the pleasant breeze that dried Pedro's feathers. Humming to himself, Pedro flew towards Nico's summer house. They were going to rock the Best of the Branch. Nico's cut was almost completely healed and he was a good dancer. Not as good as Pedro, but he had his own kind of sway when he danced. It must have been because he was foreign.

Breaking from the treeline, Pedro prepared to fly straight to Nico's place. He was expecting the wind to get stronger, but the smell of smoke was new. Some poor guy's house must have caught on fire. It wasn't completely uncommon for it to happen after all.

However, when Pedro looked in the direction of Nico's house, he could feel panic welling up in his chest. He could only hope that Nico got out as he raced towards the burning summer home.

* * *

><p><p>

Nico wheezed, pushing at the log that had fallen on him. He had just gotten out of the melting cage and had almost gotten to the window when a burning log had fallen on top of him. It was only burning on one end so far and he was positive it wouldn't stay that way. He could barely think with everything that was happening. Perhaps that was the smoke though... either way, he had to get out. If he was in here any longer, he wouldn't make it. Black was already ebbing at his sight and he wasn't sure how much longer he could fend it off.

Giving up sounded so good right then.

"-co!"

Nico looked up. It couldn't be-

"Nico!"

Nico coughed, trying desparately to make some sort of noise for Pedro to follow. That crazy bird...

"-dro-" His voice came out as a half wheeze, if that even. Nico wanted to cry at how unfair it was.

"Nico! Come on man, where are you!"

"Pe-dro" He coughed again and looked around. There had to be some way to get his attention.

Nico looked upwards. The fire was getting closer and Pedro's panic was making everything worse. Pushing at the log again, he took a deep breath.

* * *

><p><p>

Pedro kept low to the ground, avoiding going up into the rising smoke. Nico wouldn't be in here if he was able to get out. The canary's family had told him that he was still inside. Their instincts had forced the three to leave him in the cage.

Well, instincts be damned, Pedro flew straight into the burning house. He had gone over to the cage, only to find it in the process of melting with no yellow bird inside.

"Nico!" He paused, listening closely. There was nothing.

"Nico!" Again, he heard nothing. Wait, was that a cough?

Flying around a bit, he called again. "Nico! Come on man, where are you!"

Pedro paused again. He had to be there somewhere. He couldn't be... He let the implied fall from his thoughts. There was no way that could happen anyway.

"Pedro..."

Pedro snapped towards the whisper, flying over to a half-burned log.

"Nico!" He had never been happier than that moment. Helping the little bird get out from under the log, he got Nico on his back and flew up to the open window and cleared the smoke. He had to get Nico to Tulio fast. The bird was barely breathing and he looked exhausted.

* * *

><p><p>

Nico yawned, blinking in the blinding light. He could go for a few more hours of-

He shot up, immediately regretting the action when his wings screamed in agony and his back ached. His head was pounding and he was parched. A shuffling noise next to him grabbed his attention and he smiled at an ash-covered Pedro.

"Does this always happen to you?" Pedro asked, making Nico lay back down.

Pedro's slouched demeanor, puffy and bruised eyes, and tired smile, told Nico that he hadn't slept in a while. "No." Nico's voice came out as a croak and he cleared his throat a few times. Pedro tripped over himself, grabbing a thimble full of water and handing it to the canary.

Nico smiled and took a drink, smiling when the cool liquid soothed his throat. "Thanks Pedro." His voice was still croaky, but it was a lot better. "Are you okay man? You look tired."

Pedro wiped his eyes and nodded. "How are you feeling?"

Nico glanced around Tulio's treatment room, frowning. He wasn't sure that he wanted to know how he was feeling. Looking over himself, he couldn't help but flinch. His whole body was darkened with soot still and a lot of his feathers were singed. The ends of his wings were burnt pretty badly, but his chest wound had been cauterized in the fire. His back was aching, but that was most likely the pressure. All that was really affected was his voice.

His voice, what if he lost his singing voice? He wouldn't be able to sing at the Best of the Branch. Swallowing heavily he looked at Pedro in utter terror. "My voice."

Pedro chuckled, his own voice a little hoarse. "Your voice will be fine. Just drink a lot of water and don't use it too much. Rafael will be here in a little while to take you to your family. I need to go back to my hollow and rest. But, just so you know, no one knows that you made it out yet."

Nico wasn't sure how to take the news. Technically everyone thought he was dead so no one would be mad. But this was his family he was talking about. He had to tell them. Besides. They wouldn't keep him back from his dreams. Would they?

The two friends chatted idly until Rafael came to pick up the canary. Pedro and Nico said their goodbyes and made plans for the next day before Rafael carried the smaller bird home.

Hopefully the next day wouldn't be so harrowing.

* * *

><p><p>

I know, it's really short. But I just moved into the apartment yesterday and I'm having trouble adjusting. I'm seriously homesick and just kind of want to move back in with my parents. Home is where the heart is and my heart is with them :) So, my updates will be a bit slow until I can get into the swing of things.

The voting is officially over and our final results are:

Brothers-9

Slash-4

I'm going to make the sequel a slash though, just a warning. It's going to be something like their bond growing stronger and they just take their friendship to the next level. The slash will be on the back burner for the most part so, even if you aren't a fan, give it a chance. I don't plan to change their attitudes toward each other much.

Silkmouse came up with a good idea for the sequel and I'd like to see how many of you would like this better than what I put up in the poll. Her idea was: A few months (or a year) after Nico decides to stay in Rio with Pedro, his family comes to see how he is doing (possibly on their owners yearly vacation) and his brother Victor is jealous of him.

Good idea right?

Okay, next order of business. When I was little, my parents and I lived in Columbus Ohio and my parents were always going to paintball games, renaissance fairs, and playing Dungeons and Dragons with their friends. I already play paintball when I get the chance, go to renaissance fairs when possible, and I am now trying to learn how to play dungeons and dragons. If any of you lovely readers know how to play and can give me some tips, fire away!

Thank you all so much!


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own, but I wish I did.

* * *

><p><p>

Nico cringed, burying his face in Rafael's back. His wings were starting to burn and his back was itching. He knew that if he stretched so soon after being hurt, he would pay for it later.

"It turns out, someone flicked a cigarette beside your house. It caught some grass on fire and then ate away at the house. It's a miracle everyone got out okay. You doing okay Nico?"

Nico nodded, ruffling the toucan's feathers a bit. Rafael was flying at a leisurely pace, making the breeze just right to sooth some of his pain.

"That Tulio guy is pretty good. Absolutely nuts, but he's good with the medical stuff. How about you come over sometime? You can see my beautiful wife Eva and our kids. They'd love you!"

Nico smiled. Rafael seemed to be able to take his mind off of things. Carnival was in a few days and the count down would be starting in about two days. Nico's humans would go to the festivities and Nico would be free to stay with Pedro for the night. It would be perfect.

Besides, he'd like to see Rafael's family. His own tended to be solitary. More so since Nico's nest mates had been sold. He wasn't the favorite. He knew it too. His parents and brother had gotten attached to his oldest brother out of his nest mates. He was charismatic, friendly, and always cheering everyone up. Nico was the youngest out of all of them and had only whistled to himself a little bit once in a while. His mother had always encouraged him to speak, but he hadn't in front of them until the humans had tried to take away his brother. Everyone's favorite chick.

Forcing himself back into the present he felt a wave of despair overcome him. His brother had been the only one to really take the time to have conversations with him. Honestly, Nico had always spoken quietly with his brother. It was the one time, when everyone else was asleep, that he could really enjoy himself. His brother had made sure that Nico found a love for music. They would always sing together quietly in the dead of night. He wasn't sure what his brother's name was now, but they had all called him Gabriel when he was in their cage. Last Nico knew, he was living with some old lady in Florida.

"Nico? Hey, you okay?" Rafael whispered, turning his head a bit to see the little bird. Nico was sound asleep on Rafael's back, his face pressed against the back of his neck.

Rafael turned back to what he was doing and frowned. The poor canary didn't deserve all the trouble that he was put through. So much for a vacation. Attacked by seagulls, thrown onto a stage, and trapped in a blazing summer home. He hoped that nothing else would happen to the yellow bird. Not only would it ruin Nico, but Pedro was just as affected. The two had become joined at the hip from the moment they saw each other. That was either extremely good fortune, or all of their lives had taken a turn for the worst. Hopefully it wasn't the latter.

Landing on top of a hotel, Rafael scanned the surrounding sky. He wasn't sure where Nico's family and humans had gone off to. He'd have to take the canary to his hollow. It seemed that Nico would be meeting his family sooner than planned.

Gliding across the cool, cloudless sky Rafael sighed. It was a beautiful night but all he could think about was the bird on his back. His family had panicked and left him in the cage while the house burned and, if it hadn't been for Pedro, the youngest canary would have died in the fire. He had no doubt that if Nico tried to leave at this point, Pedro would go after him without a moment of thought. The two were close, that was obvious. It was like the two had been hatch mates.

Rafael would have to keep an eye on the two. Whatever happened, nothing looked particularly good for the two. Thinking up a list of birds that would help him out, he landed awkwardly at his hollow. Eva stirred and looked over at him with a tired expression. Rafael carefully put Nico in between his kids and settled down next to Eva.

"Where have you been?" His love whispered. Rafael wrapped a wing around her and smiled.

"There was an emergency. Nico needed help."

"What did you put over by the kids?"

Rafael grinned. "Our new son."

* * *

><p><p>

When Nico crawled into consciousness, he felt warmth from every angle. Cracking an eye open, he was shocked to find himself nestled in between two little toucans.

Pushing himself up, his curiosity was quelled by the sight of Rafael and a female toucan on the other side of the hollow. That would explain things. He must have fallen asleep last night on Rafael and the toucan must have brought him here. His injuries weren't bothering him as much as he thought they would. They stung a bit and they were stiff, but other than that nothing hurt or ached really.

Tiptoeing away from the little toucans, who shifted into his spot to make up for the missing body, he went over to the entrance of the hollow, hopping onto the branch that led away from it.

Ruffling his feathers in the crisp morning air, he couldn't help but smile. Rio was beautiful in the city during the day. In the morning, when his view was outlined by foliage and the sun was just starting to bathe the city in its light, it was absolutely breath taking.

Nico found his attention wandering over to the female toucan, creeping out of the hollow.

"Why are you up so early?"

Nico smiled at her and shrugged. He would answer but he didn't want to chance hurting his voice. He had to be at his best for the competition.

"Ah, I forgot. Your throat is hurt. My name is Eva. Rafael has told me a lot about you. Would you like me to take you to Pedro's? When the kids wake up it's going to be hectic."

He hadn't even considered going to Pedro's. He had always assumed that his hollow would be full with family. Though, he hadn't mentioned his parents or hatch mates at all.

With a nod, Nico clambered onto Eva's back. The toucan crouched down to help him up before free-falling off the branch and flying toward Pedro's hollow. Nico swallowed, trying to get some liquid down his rapidly-drying throat.

Eva slowed down and started circling a pond, going higher and higher until she landed on the rim of a good sized hollow. She turned around and helped Nico get off once more, whispering her goodbyes before taking off towards her own hollow again.

Nico hopped farther into the hollow, looking around. The place looked hardly lived in. There were two nests, one on each side, and a few nick knacks in the back. Pedro was asleep in the nest to the left and the one on the right was empty.

Going over to Pedro, he chuckled. Pedro was on his back, his wings falling to either side of the nest. His beak was open and he was drooling on himself. To top it off, his foot would twitch every once in a while.

Watching his best friend, Nico's mind wandered off to their first practice session. It had only been a few days ago, but the cardinal had already wormed his way into Nico's heart.

_Flashback:_

_ Pedro landed in an abandoned alleyway, turning to the yellow canary landing next to him._

_ "Okay! First I'll show you what I've come up with." Pedro brought out some differently sized cans and set them up. He stretched his wings before hitting the cans in a repeated pattern. _

_ Nico's foot started immediately tapping to the beat and he hummed to himself._

_ Pedro squawked, a sound that startled Nico out of his rhythm. He quickly got back into it and opened his beak. "I wanna party, I wanna Samba-"_

_ "That's it!"_

_ Nico stopped, looking over to Pedro and shuffling a bit. "That's what?"_

_ "The song! Come on, sing louder. No one can hear you like that." Pedro started the beat again and nodded towards Nico, grinning._

_ Nico swallowed thickly, his throat closing up on him. He opened his beak and the moment he started singing his voice broke. _

_ "Stop stop stop. Come on man, you're better than that! Don't think about the birds, think about the music. Come here for a second."_

_ Nico cleared his throat, just in case, and fluttered over to the awaiting cardinal._

_ "Okay, try playing these." Pedro hopped out of the way and Nico slowly took his place. He looked over at Pedro and, after receiving a nod, he gave each can an experimental tap. He stared hard at the cans for a moment before beginning the beat to the song they were working on._

_ Pedro couldn't help but stare at the canary. It was amazing. He was a natural at it. Pulling himself from his thoughts, he squawked. It was his signature in every song of his. And it had become a habit. But that was besides the point. Nico started to sing again and this time, his voice was louder and confident. If a couple of cans could do this much Pedro would have Nico confident in himself in no time!_

_ Nico stopped singing and looked over at Pedro with a sheepish grin. "It's really fun..."_

_ "I think I just found my partner for the competition!" Pedro wrapped the canary in a hug and spun him. "You're an angel man! I didn't know what I was going to do!"_

_ Nico smiled. No one had been grateful to him before. It was nice..._

_ End Flashback_

Committing the image of a drooling Pedro to memory, he tapped the cardinal's shoulder with his wing, slowly rousing him from his sleep.

Pedro mumbled a bit, opening his eyes to welcome the day. His beak closed and he looked at Nico, staring at him blankly. It took about five seconds for Pedro to register something bright yellow right in front of him and he promptly shrieked and fell from his nest.

Nico had to cover his beak with his wing to muffle his laughs. He fell to the floor on his side, his shoulders shaking with the effort to stop laughing. He honestly couldn't help it, Pedro's face was priceless.

"Nico? Holy crap man! How did you find my place! Wait, you can't talk. Should you even be moving! What if you hurt yourself, you still have those cuts from the seagulls!"

Nico got up, carefully brushing himself off. The ends of his wings sent him a jolt of aggravated pain, but he shook it off and folded his wings back, walking over to the panicking cardinal and making shushing noises.

Pedro took a deep breath and got up from the floor. "I'm okay..."

Nico wasn't so sure, but at least Pedro was calm now.

"Come on. Let's go get some grub and we can hang out for the rest of the day." Pedro nodded, sure of his idea.

Nico, however, wasn't so sure. He didn't know if he could fly and, if the pain from earlier had told him anything, he'd be lucky to be able to bear gliding. It was like when the humans... No. He couldn't think about that. Pedro would pick up on it.

Pedro stretched, his back popping. He strode over to the edge of the hollow and paused. Nico most likely hadn't seen everyone wake up during the countdown. "Come over here Nico, you gotta see this."

Nico hopped over to the opening and perched next to his friend, glancing around.

"This is how we wake up when it gets close to Carnival."

Slowly, sound began to reach Nico's ears. At first it was just rhythmic thumps and squawks. But when the voices started... Everything seemed to come alive around the canary. Birds were singing, trees were swaying, and music flowed in and out of every bird.

The canary could only gape in awe. It was _the_ most amazing thing he had ever seen. When he heard Pedro chuckle, he had to tear his eyes away from the vibrant display to see what he was laughing at.

Of course, he was laughing at Nico. Smiling a bit, the cardinal bobbed his head in tune to the familiar beat. Nico had turned back to the singing birds and was tapping his foot in the same beat as Pedro was bobbing his head. It was taking every ounce of their will not to join. They were song birds by heart and nothing would ever change that.

When the song came to a close, each bird flew off to continue whatever tasks that they had to complete. Most grouped up and gossiped while others left to bathe.

"Pretty cool huh?"

Nico looked over and nodded, grinning at his best friend.

"I thought you'd like it. Now come on, let's go get some food." Pedro fluttered out of the hollow and turned back to see Nico shuffling his feet. "Oh! I'm such an idiot! Here, give me your foot."

Nico slowly held out one of his feet. He trusted Pedro, but he wasn't sure what he wanted to do.

Pedro locked their feet together and flew up, forcing Nico to catch his bottle cap. Pedro locked together their other feet and flew off, Nico soundlessly giggling. Of course Pedro would decide that this was the best way to help Nico fly. He was glad for the wind through his feathers though.

Pedro made a b-line towards his favorite restaurant. The french fries and fruit there was amazing. He had even become friends with one of the employees there and the guy always brought out an order of fruit and fries just for him. The restaurant had quickly become Pedro's favorite. He couldn't go there all the time though, that would be asking for too much.

Pedro hovered above an empty table and slowly lowered Nico, letting go of one of the bird's legs. Nico braced his shoulder against the table and Pedro released him completely, landing next to the canary.

Nico straightened himself and stood in front of Pedro, a curious frown on his face.

"Just wait for a bit. He's coming."

The yellow bird shrugged. Pedro obviously had something planned. He would just have to wait it seemed.

A man walked over and set a paper bowl of fruit in front of the two birds. The man was a teenager and had short brown hair. He had freckles and glasses and seemed to be the type to be clumsy.

"Hey, you brought a friend? Sorry guys, we're running low on fries until Thursday." The man walked off a moment later, leaving a very confused Nico and a pleased Pedro.

"He's a human that helped me out one winter. I come here all the time now. Too bad the fries are out though." Pedro picked up a mango slice and munched on it, smiling.

Nico looked from Pedro to the bowl and back again.

Pedro gaped at him, part of the mango falling from his beak. "Don't tell me you've never had fruit before?"

Nico gave him a lopsided smile and looked back to the assorted fruit. He had to admit. It _did _ look good. Picking up a red, pink, and white disc, he took a bite out of it.

Pedro started laughing. The look on Nico's face made it seem like he had never had anything better. "You a fan of strawberries?"

Nico blinked at him, looked back to the rest of the strawberry in his wing, blinked at him again, and ate the rest of the strawberry before Pedro could blink. Nico was then looking through the rest of the fruit, finally grabbing a part of an orange slice. He bit into it and frowned. It wasn't as good as the strawberry, but it did have a taste of its own.

"Orange."

He was mute, not blind. He could see that it was orange.

Pedro glanced over at his temporarily mute companion and chuckled. Nico looked like he thought he was crazy. "The fruit you're eating is called an orange. It's also the color of the fruit."

Nico nodded, still unsure. Pedro could be trying to pull a fast one on him. Shrugging, he finished the "orange" and moved onto the next fruit. He pulled out a green circle, a lot like the strawberry but green and had black dots. He munched on it and was once again assaulted by an odd taste. This was much better than the "orange" but still not as good as the strawberry.

"Kiwi."

Nico frowned at his companion mid-bite. Now he _knew _he was messing with him. A kiwi was a type of bird!

"Seriously! It's really called a kiwi!" Nico snorted but nodded again.

Looking into the bowl, Nico looked at the last two pieces of fruit. One was white with a red lining on one side. The other was yellow with darker yellow on the inside of the circle. Almost kind of like the two of them. Pedro reached in and grabbed the red and white one, breaking it in half and handing one half to Nico, who happily took it and bit down.

"Apple."

Nico nodded and savored the taste. This one was sweet and juicy and hydrated his throat. He grabbed the last one and split it in half with Pedro, smiling at the bird.

"Banana."

Pedro swallowed his and Nico bit into his, his eyes lighting up. Give him fruit over french fries any day. Nico swallowed and licked his beak, sitting down and rubbing his stomach. Pedro mimicked his actions but laid on his back instead.

Nico got up and stretched, glancing around. He couldn't help it. Rio just felt like...home. But his parents and his brother. Would they miss him? Did they care that he was "dead"?

"Stop it Nico, your face will freeze if you make that face too much."

Nico smiled once more, hopping over to his friend and nudging him up. He needed to see his family. He would make his decision then. But what if he couldn't do it? His mom had always taken care of him and his dad had always protected him. So there was one lapse during the fire. And he _could _have died. But he _didn't _die. Was one mistake worth everything else they had done for him?

But what about Pedro? He had saved his life. He was showing him all these wonderful things. He was Nico's first and best friend. He had only known Pedro for a few days though... But it seemed like so much longer. Nico had never been this happy before in his life. His family was supposed to encourage his happiness right? Well, they thought he was happy now, in heaven, but happy. Was it so bad to want to stay dead in the eyes of his family?

"Nico? You ready to go?"

Nico shook himself and went to the edge of the table where Pedro was fluttering in wait. Nico offered his foot and they repeated the process of earlier. Pedro stretched out his wings and they started the journey into Rio. Nico had a feeling that when he saw his family, his decision would be made for him.

My longest chapter yet! I'm proud of myself!

Yes, I'm still alive. Amazing isn't it?

The sequel is looking like this so far: Nico and Pedro are captured by poachers/smugglers and get stuck in Minnesota.

I feel a lot better now since the last chapter. It's still rough, but it could be worse.


	7. Chapter 6

I don't own Rio... I wish I did though, I would be the happiest person in the world :D

Their flight took hours and they had to take breaks every hour or so for them to rest. Despite his condition, Nico tried to help Pedro by flapping his wings when he could stand it and keeping them tucked in when he couldn't.

They hadn't found Nico's family as they were hoping. Though, something vile had settled in the pit of Nico's stomach at the thought of his family. He hadn't thought about it before really, why would he? This was his family that he was talking about! But they had ABANDONED him. In a FIRE of all things! He could understand to a certain extent. Instincts and all, but they could have woken him up or something.

Shaking himself from his downhill thoughts, he tugged on one of Pedro's legs and pointed to a nearby building.

"You want to land already?" Pedro panted, gliding towards the building. They had been flying around all day and it was only just starting to cool off.

Pedro gently helped Nico onto the ground before landing next to the canary. They had almost looked through all of Rio and the cardinal couldn't help but sag a little where he sat. Performing was one thing, flying around looking for three little canaries was a whole other ball game.

Nico smiled at his best friend and couldn't help but admire the cardinal. He was willing to help him look for three canaries that he had only briefly seen a couple of times. Nico settled down on the roof, rolling his shoulders in small circles to relieve the tension on some of his wounds. His throat still hurt, but they had stopped for plenty of water breaks and it didn't hurt as bad anymore. He still didn't want to chance his voice though.

Pedro rolled onto his back and made an "oof" sound. Nico laid next to him and rested his head on Pedro's stomach, grinning.

"You better not make a habit out of this, I have an image to keep you know."

Nico snorted at him and proceeded to make himself more comfortable.

"Injured or not I'm not your pillow Nico."

Nico sat up and raised an eyebrow at him, smirking before laying back down.

Pedro laughed and patted Nico's shoulder. "You know me too well. I swear that you've been my friend our whole lives."

Nico looked at the singed feathers on the end of his wings and sighed at the missing ones. It would be a couple weeks before they were all back and mature. He hated blood feathers. They were sore and he couldn't do much until they matured or they would break and he would have to repeat the process. At least he would be able to do the show. If he was right, his family's humans had to postpone leaving because of the fire.

"Hey, why don't you stay at my place tonight? I have an extra nest in my hollow. It's just there because that side of the hollow as pretty empty and I had spare time. We can fix it up and everything!"

Nico grinned and nodded, swallowing his chuckle. Pedro looked so excited it was rubbing off on him already.

Pedro sat up quickly, startling Nico and making the canary fall. Pedro gasped like he had just killed his grandmother and helped Nico up, brushing him off and apologizing so fast Nico's head was spinning.

Nico slapped a wing over Pedro's beak and huffed out a laugh. The cardinal's shoulders slumped and he sighed. Nico pulled his wing back and tapped the cardinal's shoulder in what would have been a punch if he could have.

Pedro wrapped a wing around Nico's shoulders and pressed their heads together, knocking Nico's bottle cap askew.

"I've gotta stop doing that man."

Nico shook his head and pointed towards the jungle, nudging Pedro forward.

"You want to go back now? We haven't found your family yet though."

The canary shrugged, the vile feeling rolling in his stomach.

"Well, alright. We have to go see Rafael tomorrow though. I promised that I'd hang out with him and his family one of these days. I think I promised him a week ago..." Pedro shrugged. "It'll be a good chance for you to meet everyone. Their kids are a little rowdy but it could be worse. Just imagine if they had like... 20 or something! That would be insane!" Pedro flew up and reached a foot down to Nico, who jumped up, fluttering a bit and catching Pedro's foot. He dropped and linked his other foot in Pedro's, letting his friend carry him to the hollow.

* * *

><p><p>

When they got to the hollow, both birds collapsed onto the floor, groaning. Both of them were exhausted, Pedro even more so. Panting for a while, they looked to each other and immediately started cracking up.

"No one has EVER gotten me to do that much in one day!" Pedro gasped out, rolling onto his side. Nico mimicked him, rolling so they faced each other. Their chuckles slowly subsided and Pedro got up, reaching over and helping his companion up. The two walked over to the guest nest and Nico got into it, shifting a bit to get comfortable.

"Do you need anything, I could get it for you."

Nico chuckled and shook his head, shooing Pedro away. The cardinal smiled and walked over to his own nest, settling down and ruffling his feathers to cool off.

"Goodnight Nico." Pedro smiled and closed his eyes.

Nico swallowed a few times and cleared his throat quietly. "Night Pedro."

Pedro's head shot over to Nico and he was about to protest but Nico had already closed his eyes and was breathing deeply. Pedro snorted and fell asleep himself.

The moment Pedro's breathing evened out Nico cracked an eye open and smirked, closing his eyes again and falling asleep.

* * *

><p><p>

Rafael grabbed his first born, Murilo. He put the trouble making toucan by his younger brother, Breno, and glanced over at Eva and their family friend, another female toucan that was going to keep the egg warm for the day.

Grabbing Murilo, Rafael waited for Eva to take Breno and they took off towards the beach. It wasn't every day that they could get out of their hollow. The flight consisted of a lot of "Are we there yet"s, a few sighs from the mother toucan, and a very peeved off father. When they dropped the kids on the sand, the chicks almost immediately made a break for the water.

Eva settled down in the shade of a palm tree and watched the kids carefully. Rafael looked around for Nico and Pedro for a moment before joining his kids in splashing each other in the waves.

They had landed in a small cove a little ways from the beaches. Pedro had discovered it in one of his "adventures" as he called them. Though, with all the trouble he got into it might as well have been an adventure. There was a rock wall surrounding the small stretch of sand in a crescent. The waves that made it through to the cove were gentle up and downs that could lull you to sleep if anything.

"Hey Raffy!"

Rafael shielded his face with his wings and looked over to the two birds, laughing at their positioning. Nico was hanging from Pedro's feet, his wing over his face in mortification. Pedro helped Nico to the ground before flying back up into the air.

"Wait wait wait! Pedro NO!"

Pedro's cannonball pushed all three toucans towards the shore and soaked them. Murilo and Breno laughed and shouted for an encore while Rafael frowned. Nico, however, was holding his stomach, tears running down his face, and laughing so hard he couldn't stand. Rafael smirked at the canary, cupping his wing and flinging water at him.

Nico cracked his eyes open, gasping for a moment before his eyes widened and he held up his wings as a shield. The water crashed into him and he sat up furiously, glaring at the toucan.

"You're gonna get it!" He cleared his throat and ran into the water, splashing the shocked toucan.

"You can talk again?"

Nico snorted and flung water into Rafael's face. "The competition _is _tomorrow night Rafael. Besides, I was low enough that it wasn't too severe. Most of the damage was done when I was in the cage." Nico paused and looked at the four beady eyes staring into his soul. "Um... Rafael?" He swam back a bit, his eyes widening in horror when the little toucans followed him.

"Awww, they like you Nico!" Pedro cooed, barely holding back a laugh.

"They're almost bigger than I am!" He cleared his throat again and the two toucans dove on him at his momentary lapse of concentration. "Gah!"

He was pushed under the shallow waters and one of the toucans wrapped him in a hug, pulling him back up and keeping him from his brother.

Rafael sneaked back onto shore and settled down next to Eva, frowning at the feeling of sand sticking to his feathers.

Nico sighed and slumped in the little toucan's grasp. "This is oddly humiliating..."

Pedro waded over to the three birds and tried to take Nico from their grasp. This, of course, ended with Pedro recoiling in pain as one of them bit him.

Rafael chuckled, watching all four go under the water. Nico had a firm grip on his bottle cap, Murilo had a hold of Nico, Breno was trying to get Nico, and Pedro had a hold of all of them. Pressing his cheek against Eva's he grinned at her giggle and started quietly singing to her. He wrapped a wing around her and she pressed her head against his neck, smiling.

"It's a nice day isn't it Rafael?" She asked. Rafael murmured his agreement and smiled at a desperate looking Nico. The little canary was soaked head to toe and he was trying to get away from the little monsters. His efforts didn't do much since each toucan had one of his legs. Nico shrieked as they tossed him back into the water and went after him.

It took about an hour for Pedro to get the little toucans to calm down enough so that he could drag Nico back to shore. The canary put his wing to his forehead and dramatically explained how life scarring it was. Murilo and Breno giggled and sat down in front of the two birds in the sand, waiting to be entertained.

Nico got up. "I do believe we have an audience Pedro." He shook himself out and adjusted his bottle cap, stretching. He took a dramatic pose. "O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day! Most lamentable day. Most woeful day That ever, ever I did yet behold! O day, O day, O day! O hateful day! Never was seen so black a day as this. O woeful day! O woeful day!"

Pedro and the two toucans stared blankly at him. Nico gaped at them. "You don't know Shakespeare! He's famous!"

"Nah man, I've never heard of the guy."

Nico sighed, rubbing a wing over his face. "I'll tell you about him later. How about we find ourselves a good spot to dry off? I've got sand under my feathers."

Murilo giggled and skipped off, Breno not far behind him. Nico hopped over to the cliff side and leaned against the cool rock, sliding down until he was comfortably seated. Pedro joined him and the two leaned against each other.

"One thing that I miss about the states: it wasn't this hot."

Pedro laughed, smirking at the canary. "It isn't even the hottest day of the year yet bro. How are you gonna survive if you can't handle this much?"

"Adaptability and perseverance?"

Pedro choked on a laugh and kicked his feet. "Good luck with that one!"

Nico laughed with his brother, pausing after a moment. When had they started talking like he was staying permanently? Was the decision that easily made? Smiling, he resumed laughing. It wasn't that hard when Pedro kept snorting.

Rafael looked on at the two with a soft smile on his beak. They weren't going to be separated easily. Glancing over at his kids, the toucans, he huffed out a laugh when their sand castle crumbled on one side.

It was nice getting out. Eva stirred and yawned, leaning to whisper in Rafael's ear. "I forgot to mention this but... there's three more on the way." She settled back down, ignoring the look of shocked horror on Rafael's face. A couple seconds later, his facial expression faded and he slumped, unconscious.

Nico and Pedro had found themselves dragged into helping make the "best sand castle ever". The concept was easy enough, but actually getting it to stay standing and sturdy was in impossibility. The only one having any sort of luck was Pedro. His corner of the sand castle was stunning. He had made a tower, complete with a flag on top, and made windows on it. He had made his halves of the wall and was digging out a moat.

"How do you do it Pedro?"

The mentioned cardinal looked up and grinned at the yellow bird. "Practice. And a few mishaps with the tide here and there." He grabbed a stick and started drawing some designs into the side. After a moment of seemingly pointless scribbling, rocks started to show up on the walls Pedro built.

Nico laughed and looked to his own corner of the castle. So far, he had built a stunningly beautiful lump of sand. Yeah, sculpting apparently wasn't his thing.

Finishing off the last of his detail work, Pedro grinned and stood up to marvel at his work. Only to frown at the unidentifiable lumps around it. "Not working for you guys?"

All three sent him a devious look before they slowly got up and dove straight into the tower he had built.

Pedro squawked in shock and dove to try to stop them but ended up only helping in the destruction. Well, at least the castle matched now. The four birds slowly got up and shook out some sand. Nico sat down on the sand with a plop and leaned back against a mound of sand behind him. The two little toucans ran off a little ways and started digging for something. Pedro took a page from Nico and joined his friend by the mound.

"Where did you learn to build a sand castle?" Nico asked, sitting up.

Pedro chuckled. "Practice."

"That's not what I meant and you know it Pedro!" Nico's voice broke and scratched when he raised it and Pedro looked at him in worry. Nico cleared his throat again and gestured for Pedro to speak.

"They have sand castle contests every month. I've watched a couple."

"So when was the last time you missed one?"

"Well, you see..."

"You've seen all of them haven't you?"

Pedro sighed. "Yeah..."

Nico laughed, leaning back again.

"Will you be able to sing tomorrow night? You're sounding a little hoarse again."

Nico opened his beak to answer but was cut off by two little toucans almost literally dragging him off.

Murilo and Breno stopped in front of a large hole, pointing at it and Pedro excitedly.

"You want me to help you bury Pedro in the sand?"

The two giggled manically and nodded, jumping a bit. Nico snorted.

"You want me, an injured bird, to trick my best friend and savior, into getting into a hole to bury him?" He raised a brow.

The two toucans looked down, their expressions falling as well.

"I'm in."

The two brightened immediately and ran off behind a strategically placed sand dune. Nico hopped over to Pedro and motioned for him to get up. "I have something you _gotta _see!"

The cardinal grumbled and slowly got to his feet. "This better be good Nico."

Nico nodded and pulled him towards the hole, pointing towards the ocean to keep him distracted.

"I don't see anyth-!" He yelped as he fell into the hole, almost immediately being attacked with sand. When Pedro finally deemed it safe to open his eyes, his gaze immediately sought out the yellow canary that had tricked him. "That was a dirty trick Nico."

"You wouldn't beat up an injured bird would you?" His eyes got impossibly big and he blinked at him, his bottle cap falling back a bit. His wings were clasped in front of his chest and his lower beak trembled.

"You look too pitiful for words..."

Nico straightened up, only to bow at Pedro. "I aim to please."

Both of them stared at each other before Pedro broke the silence with a snort. They started laughing hysterically, Nico falling back and kicking his legs in the air.

When the two finally calmed down enough to start gasping, Nico gave a muffled yelp and disappeared from Pedro's peripheral vision. Breno suddenly started digging furiously next to Pedro, the hole was smaller than Pedro's and made in a rush. A struggling yellow canary was suddenly forced into the hole and sand was packed around him.

"I _helped _you!" Nico shrieked, trying and failing to escape.

The little toucans looked at each other and giggled, packing the sand down and running off. Nico sighed and rested his chin on the sand.

Pedro waggled his eyebrows. "Karma."

"Oh shut up Pedro."

The cardinal smirked. "So where have you been anyway?"

The canary raised his eyebrows at the cardinal.

"Places Nico! Geez, where have you traveled to?"

"Hm, all around the world honestly. I don't remember much of the states, but I remember New York. We went to Japan and traveled around there for a while. We went to Russia, Germany, Panama, London, York, Tuscany, Paris, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Rome, Greece, Israel, and a lot of others. I can't remember all of them. One of my owners was a business person. He had to travel a lot so he brought everyone with him."

"Wow... I've never even heard of most of those places."

Nico smiled. "They all have their good points. But none of them are better than Rio de Janiero." He shifted and frowned. "Good thing all my cuts are scabbed over, this would be torture if they weren't."

Pedro shifted and started pulling himself out of the sand, making Nico gape at him again.

"How?"

Pedro grinned and shook sand from his feathers, making sure to keep it away from Nico. "I've been to the beach with the toucans before. You have to learn these things when the tide starts coming in."

Nico's eyes widened in horror and he looked at the approaching and receding water.

"Hey... wanna get me out too Pedro?"

Pedro crossed his wings and took a ruminative pose. "I dunno Nico, you _did _help in burying me in the sand."

"But I was buried too! Come on man, I'll make it up to you, I swear!" He wriggled again, trying to get out of the sand.

"Ha! Now you're in my debt!" Pedro reached into the sand, digging for a moment before lifting Nico out by under his arms. Nico stretched joyfully, grinning and flapping his wings slowly.

Pedro set Nico onto his feet and stretched out as well, walking towards Rafael and Eva. The sun was setting and the two would have to spend the next day getting ready for their performance that night. They were the final act. Pedro would finally be himself on stage, and Nico would perform in front of a large crowd.

Nico so badly wanted his family to be there for him. The fire had done a lot more damage than he let on. It hadn't been all that long since Pedro had saved him, but it seemed to be long enough. His dreams were starting to fill with fire and fear. He would see his family flying away from him, and no matter how much he called for them, they never looked back. It scared him, to know that his family had abandoned him like that. He wanted to see his mother again, so that she could tell him that it was a misunderstanding. That they had done everything that they could to get him out. It was a long shot, but it was all he had left that kept his thoughts about his family happy.

"-co? Nico! You okay man?"

Nico shook his head and grinned at his best friend. "I'm fine, just thinking a bit."

Pedro frowned but nodded and grabbed Nico's foot, quickly flying straight into the air a grabbing his other foot. Nico rolled his eyes the two headed towards their hollow.

Rafael watched the two go, grabbing Murilo and smiling at his tired sons. Breno was on Eva's back, already asleep. Murilo's eyes were still fluttering, showing how hard he was fighting to stay up. The toucans carefully took to the air, flying towards their own hollow. Rafael smiled to himself, recalling the events of earlier. He was definitely going to have his wings full when his kids started flying.

Wow... It's been a while since I updated. Sorry about the delay guys, things have been hectic IRL lately. I swear my review rate for each chapter goes down by the second so you're welcome to press the review button and just say hi if that's what you feel like. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter, the next one is looking like the last.

I might add a chapter showing Nico's family's view during the fire, but I'm not sure. I might just make it a little one-shot if I get the time to type it. Tell me what you think!


	8. Chapter 7

I don't own, etc ect. Enjoy the last chapter (give or take an epilogue.)

Nico kept his feathers fluffed, using his beak to preen out the grains of sand from yesterday's mishaps. Looking up at the slowly brightening sky, he smiled to himself and secured his bottle cap. Tonight was the big night. For more than one reason. His family would be going home without him. It made his heart flutter at the thought of leaving the nest, but it was for the best. They _did _abandon him after all. Diving into the cool pond, he swam in its depths before resurfacing with his bottle shining atop his head.

Pedro landed at the edge of the pond and waved to the canary, grinning. "Come on Nico, let's go get some breakfast. You're practically sparkling at this point."

Nico swam towards the cardinal, walking towards shore. He shook off the excess water, making sure that most of it hit Pedro before taking to the air as fast as his wings could carry him. He heard Pedro squawk in astonishment but didn't chance a look back, knowing full well that Pedro would be hot on his tail feathers.

"I'll get you for that you little rat!"

Nico tucked in his wings the moment he broke the tree line and dove parallel to the cliff. Snapping out his wings, his body contorted to the sudden new direction and he started flapping to keep his momentum and to ease the ache in his shoulders. Note to self: easing into a turn is a thumbs up.

It wasn't long before Nico landed at one of the many cafes that Pedro had shown him. Glancing around, he grinned when he saw a family eating a couple tables away from him. Fluttering over to the table, he landed on the edge and the adults quickly hushed their little girl. Hopping towards the fruit, he looked at the family, seeing them trying to "subtly" get a camera. Getting onto the edge of the paper bowl, he looked at the assorted fruit, studying the glistening shapes of colorful joy before he found what he was looking for and took it from the bowl. Biting into the fruit he grinned to himself and quickly finished the strawberry. It was truly the best thing to ever touch his tongue.

"Mommy," The little girl whispered. "I wanna touch the birdie."

Nico looked over at the little girl. She looked about three to four years old. He supposed he did have to give them something for letting him pick off of their plate.

"No honey, the birdie might not like that."

Hopping over to the little girl, Nico sighed and fixed his bottle cap. Please no sticky fingers... He walked over to her hand and stepped up onto it.

"Momma, he's wearing a bottle cap."

"Shh, you don't wanna scare him off." They started taking pictures and, just to mess with them when they went over the pictures later, Nico looked to the camera and winked.

Pedro landed on the table panting. "Nico man," He gasped for a bit. "How do you fly so fast? That was insane!"

Nico looked back at his best friend and grinned. "I had to be fast if I wanted to keep my little adventures secret."

Pedro took one deep breath and walked over to the bowl of fruit, grabbing a piece of cantaloupe and eating it. He chuckled to himself when the camera focused on him instead of Nico.

The canary went back to the bowl of fruit and the two started eating, making faces and subtle gestures ever few pictures to mess with the humans.

"Can't believe that I've never thought to do this to humans before." Pedro chuckled, the two sharing a look before sticking their tongues out at the camera. Splitting the last piece of fruit the two licked their beaks. Pedro belched and Nico shot him a look.

"Haven't you ever heard of manners?"

"Man what?"

Nico sighed. "Of course you haven't..."

Pedro shrugged and got up, dusting himself off. "Let's go, we gotta go set up for the show tonight."

"So what do we have to do anyway?"

"Teach everyone their parts, set up the stage, check the sound system, and do a few test runs."

"Wow..."

"It's not all that bad, it's a little bit hectic at first but everything gets done somehow."

Nico felt a rock drop into his stomach. Somehow wasn't a word he wanted to hear. He needed full assurance.

Pedro jumped into the air and fluttered, looking back at Nico. The canary rolled his shoulders to ease the still present ache and quickly joined him and they flew towards the Branch.

The couple murmured to each other, looking between the picture of Nico winking and the canary flying away.

Pedro paused at the entrance of the Branch, shuffling his feet. "What if they don't like how I really am? What if they-"

"Pedro. You act like a complete 'I am greater than thou' bird around them. Believe me, the change will be welcomed." Nico grabbed Pedro's wing and dragged the still protesting cardinal into the most popular club in Rio.

"You're here!" Diego ran over to them, pushing them towards the catastrophic stage. The whole place was an absolute mess. No one knew what they were doing, everyone was yelling at each other, and there was equipment strewn about haphazardly.

"What happened bird?" Pedro asked gaping at the mess.

"Well, I'm not sure honestly. But no one will listen to me! I can't get through to any of them." The yellow parrot slumped and shook his head. "I'm sorry to ask this Pedro, but can you help me out?"

"Hey guys!" Pedro yelled, cupping his wings around his beak to amplify his voice. No one noticed. Some of them glanced at him, but almost immediately went back to arguing with each other. If anything, they got louder. Pedro tried a few more times but his voice was lost in the crowd. He looked at Diego and shrugged and the parrot sighed in defeat. They'd just have to-

"SHUT. UP!" Everything got quiet all of a sudden, every bird's attention on a little yellow canary. "You can settle whatever your fighting about _later. _If I have to listen to _one _more argument heads are gonna roll! You you and you. Take that light and get it set up. You have ten minutes before you start losing tail feathers. You and you, start setting up those platforms before you _become _one! You four! Start setting up the instruments. The rest of you, Pedro is going to teach you the parts while everyone else gets set up. Now _move it!_"

All the birds littering the area, save for Diego and Pedro, scattered like roaches to the backstage. Nico stood there panting for a moment before correcting his posture and sighing. He casually looked back at Pedro and Diego, only to recoil in shock. Their beaks were hanging open and they would blink slowly at him. "What?"

That seemed to kick them out of their trances. "What do you mean 'what'!" Pedro shrieked. "You just scared the feathers off of a room full of birds more than twice your size like it was nothing and all you can say to us is 'what'!"

Nico scratched the back of his head and chuckled. "I'm nervous... and I don't like it when birds fight."

"Oh my gosh... That is-"

"U-um... We need-" The green parrot gulped and looked at Nico before focusing on Pedro. "The part?"

Pedro nodded and the three birds scurried backstage again. Pedro shook his head and went backstage after the birds.

Diego patted Nico's back and grinned. "I can't thank you enough for that one. I don't think I've ever seen them get to work that fast before."

"I just asked them to so some stuff..."

Diego snorted. "You might wanna practice a bit while everyone's working. You'd be surprised at how unprepared you feel when you get on stage." Diego patted his back once more and walked off.

Nico glanced at all the working birds and sighed. It couldn't hurt anything could it? Fluttering onto the stage, he was acutely aware of how every eye in the room zeroed in on him. He took a deep breath closed his eyes, humming a beat to himself. A smile slowly formed on his beak and he began to sing.

"Every part in my heart I'm giving out

Every song on my lips I'm singing out  
>Any fear in my soul I'm letting go<p>

And anyone who asks I'll let them know

She's the one, she's the one  
>I say it loud<br>She's the one, she's the one  
>I say it proud<p>

Ring a bell, Ring a bell  
>For the whole crowd<br>Ring a bell, Ring a bell~

I'm telling the world," He raised his wings and started swaying with the beat.  
>"That I've found a girl<br>The one I can live for  
>The one who deserves<p>

Every part in my heart I'm giving out  
>Every song on my lips I'm singing out<br>Any fear in my soul I'm letting go  
>And anyone who asks I'll let them know<p>

She's the one, she's the one  
>I say it loud<br>She's the one, she's the one  
>I say it proud<p>

Ring a bell, Ring a bell  
>For the whole crowd<br>Ring a bell, Ring a bell 

I'm telling the world  
>That I've found a girl<br>The one I can live for  
>The one who deserves<p>

To give all my heart  
>A reason to fly<br>The one I can live for  
>A reason for life~" <p>

He cleared his throat and opened his eyes, smiling. The loud cheer behind him sent him toppling off of the stage and scrambling to turn around, eyes wide. He _really _had to get used to people cheering suddenly. It seemed to happen a lot around him lately.

He let something of an ego make a presence in his mind scape before brushing it away. No one liked a cocky bird. Besides, it was all for the music anyway.

Fixing his bottle cap and getting up, he smiled at the cheering workers. At least they didn't hold a grudge against him for earlier. Climbing back up to the stage, he quickly made a b-line for the backstage. He may appreciate their cheers, but he was still shy.

Going over to Pedro, head bowed, he shuffled his feet and listened in while Pedro tried to teach the birds the beat they had come up with. The only problem was that the drums, or cans he supposed, sounded different from the ones they would practice on.

"Hey Nico! Good thing you're here bird! I had to change it up a bit. Think this will do?"

The green parrot took his cue and started playing the beat. Nico brought his head up and listened, smiling. "Sounds great! Even better than the original if I do say so myself." The cardinal and canary hi-fived and started going over how they would time the drums. The parrot would start out, and Nico and Pedro would amplify a few notes on their own sets of drums right before Nico started singing.

It took two hours to help the parrot memorize his part. After that, Pedro had sent him off to do some advertising for the show that would take place in six hours. The lighting was beginning to be a problem.

Nico sighed again when the birds he had set to the task of setting up the lights almost dropped one of the colored lights. Again. He'd give them credit for getting the first light up within ten minutes like he had asked, but this was getting ridiculous.

The three set the light down and looked to Nico, hope in their eyes. Apparently he had become the unofficial leader since his little outburst earlier.

Sighing, he walked over to the three, looking over the light. It seemed to be in working order. "Well what's wrong? The light doesn't look broken."

"We need someone to secure the light and thread the wire around the beam while we hold it up."

"You were able to get the others up perfectly fine though."

The three birds smiled wearily at him, their shoulders slumping a bit. "We're exhausted and only two of us can't hold up the light at this point."

Nico rolled his shoulder, happy to find that the ache had faded to an almost nonexistent throb. He nodded to the birds and grabbed the wire with his feet, waiting for the birds to grab the light before beginning his ascent. The moment he got high enough, he quickly flew around the bar. When the light was lined up with its slot, Nico secured it and glided down with the others, landing on the stage. Nico winced a bit rubbing his shoulder. That turn really did do a number on him, that was for sure. Nodding at the birds' thanks, he waved them off to rest and went to check on the sound. His shoulder would be fine though, he didn't really do much with it for the performance anyway.

Walking behind the stage, he made his way over to the birds fixing the microphones. The birds glanced up at his approach and hastened what they were doing.

"We're almost done I swear!" One of the birds cried out, not looking up from her task.

"Um... I didn't mean to startle you or anything. I was just wondering if you needed any help." He shuffled his feet, fingering his bottle cap. Did he really leave that much of an impression?

The honeycreeper looked at him, startled, but shook her head. "No, we have it under control. The mics should be up in about thirty minutes."

Nico nodded and walked off, rolling his shoulders to ease some of the tension. He sighed, humming to himself. There was about three hours until the show started. Birds would start filing in in about two. So, with mics going up in thirty minutes and sound checks in forty-five, he had a half hour to explore the club.

Hopping out from backstage, the canary made his way to the boxes that held up the roof and that birds perched on. He hopped up onto the nearest one and started to climb each box to get to the top, favoring his right wing. He finally made it to the top, sighing. He wasn't sure what would've been easier. Flying, or climbing? Either way, he was where he wanted to be.

Tucking his feet under him, he settled down on the box and oversaw everything below him. Everyone was starting to wind down, starting up conversations amongst their little groups and laughing at jokes. Nico found himself yearning to join in their conversations. But seriously, he had, not only, scared each and every bird in there, but he had lived most of his life in a cage. He wasn't very "socially suave" to put it mildly.

So, to ease his strange need to socialize, he eavesdropped. Apparently, some bird had laid about five eggs, there were a few fights, the seagulls hadn't bothered anyone for a while, which was an oddity it seemed, and there were a few comments here and there about the summer house being on fire. Everything else was garbled or too quiet for him to hear.

"It's time for sound checks everyone!" Pedro yelled from the stage, all of the birds immediately quieting their gossip. Nico smiled to himself and gripped the edge of the box he was on, pushing off and gliding down to the stage. He fluttered for a moment, hovering a few inches from the ground, before dropping next to his friend.

"This is it bird, after we run the check all we have to do is wait for our turn later tonight."

Nico tried and failed to swallow the panic that leaped into his throat. There was a very good chance that he would never be able to stand in front of a crowd with confidence.

"Come on, don't be like that, you're a good singer. Besides, I've been getting these strange looks ever since I started acting like, well, me." Pedro glanced around and Nico mimicked him. He wasn't kidding. A lot of the birds, mainly female, would glance over to Pedro and quickly look back to their friends, giggling.

"Huh." Nico offered intelligently.

Pedro chuckled and looked back, nodding at some signal that Nico didn't see. "Alright, check one, two." His voice rang out through the mostly empty club and Pedro grinned. "Turn down the base a bit and we're good." He linked wings with Nico and nearly dragged the smaller bird backstage in his excitement.

"I-I don't know if I can do this Pedro, I mean, what if I mess up. In front of all those birds..."

Pedro laughed. "What, do you think they're going to try to eat you?"

Nico's face completely paled and his eyes widened in horror.

Crap, not helping. "They won't actually eat you Nico, it's just a figure of speech. Nothing bad will happen, I promise."

Nico groaned, burying his face in his wings. "I'm doomed..."

Pedro chuckled and pulled the canary into a one-armed hug. "You'll do fine, you did fine when you first got onto the stage. And we've been practicing this for days."

"One, I didn't get onto the stage, I was physically thrown onto it. And two, DAYS Pedro, DAYS. We should have been practicing for weeks! We're nowhere near ready!"

Pedro rolled his eyes. "If you forget what to do, improvise. I'll work around it."

Nico gaped at him, one of his eyes twitching.

Improvise. Right.

Pedro chuckled and patted Nico's shoulder, walking off to who knows where.

Nico sat against the wall nearby, fanning himself with his bottle cap. After a little while, he heard birds start to trickle into the club and music was soon playing. Nico found that his nervousness from before had nearly tripled. He was on edge and felt like he was a few more cheers from a panic attack. He wanted to get out.

Taking a shuddering breath, he stood up and paced for a bit, tapping his bottle cap and singing softly to himself. It helped, but he could barely hear himself over the sound of the partying birds. His heart fluttered in his chest and he had to shake his head vigorously to stave off the urge to just fly straight out of there and not look back.

"Nico! It's almost time!" Pedro yelled, coming over to him.

Nico's heart stopped. It took a bit but it stuttered again and his knees started to shake.

"I-I don't know Pedro, I don't think I can do this." His whole frame shuddered and he wrapped his wings around himself. He was terrified.

Pedro smiled at him and gripped his shoulders. "Don't worry about it Nico, it'll just be you, me, and the music. Don't focus on what doesn't matter bird." Pedro patted his back and Nico's heart slowed a bit from its frenzied shudders.

"Yeah, you me and the music. I can work with that." Nico nodded to himself.

"Good, let's go!"

Nico yelped as he was pulled out onto the stage and pushed up onto his position at the drums.

A spotlight fixated on Pedro. "Alright listen up! Tonight, I'm doing a duet with my best friend here," He gestured to Nico and another spotlight fixated on the canary, who shuffled his feet and ducked his head a bit. The beat started and Pedro headed to his own set of drums grinning. He squawked and Nico smiled at his friend's vocal tic.

Nico gripped his cap. "Party in the Ipanema baby..."

He and Pedro hit their drums, perfectly in sync and Nico felt his nerves wash away in the familiar beat. He jumped onto a straw and slid down it, swinging with the beat, Pedro singing with him every step of the way.

"I wanna party,"

He jumped onto a jar, pulling off a handstand and spinning. He held his bottle cap into the air and easily and gripped the rim, putting his feet on the curvature of the bottle and leaning back, his bottle cap being replaced on his head with a flourish.

"I wanna Samba,

I wanna party,

I wanna Samba,"

Nico flew over to Pedro's drums and landed in front of them while the cardinal stopped playing and jumped over them, dancing where he landed.

"I wanna party,

And live my life,"

Nico rolled his bottle cap down his wings and tossed it up, catching it and replacing it on his head in one fluid movement.

"I wanna party," They leaned into each other and shared a look, grinning.

"And fly~" The two took of into the air, arching into different directions. Nico landed back near the bottle and pulled off his bottle cap, tapping a rapid beat on it and matching his footwork with it.

"I wanna fly,

Fly just like a bird~" Pedro had landed about a foot to his left and lifted his wings in a shrug.

"But you are a bird!"

"Oh yeah you're right so let me fly just like a rocket then." He timed his steps, ending up on the edge of the spoon and straightening his posture, looking straight up. Pedro jumped up, a silly grin on his face.

"Okay!" He jumped onto the edge of the spoon, easily launching Nico into the air.

"Fly so high where I need to come down for oxygen," Nico let himself reach the peak, free falling towards the ground. He had to bite back giggles as he felt butterflies in his stomach.

"Hey!"

"Cause once we're started ain't no, ain't no stoppenin."

"Hey!"

Nico landed on the wooden boards and slid down them spreading his wings in front of himself and behind himself for balance.

"Cause I just wanna live my life an party," When he got to the end of the boards, he jumped and landed in the splits, smoothly bringing his legs back together to stand up. Pedro slid across the stage and the two crossed.

"Hey!"

The two got back to back and started dancing, sidestepping in a circle.

"All I want is to be free and rock my body," Nico spread his wings and shimmied.

"Okay!"

"I've been around the world and I wanna live my life,

In Rio,

Cause in Rio,

In Rio I realize," The two broke away and Nico started dancing solo on one half of the stage, Pedro on the other.

"I wanna party,

I wanna Samba,

I wanna party,

And fly~" Nico dove into the air, working his wings and swooping over the crowd. Gliding back up over the stage, he made a free fall down and landed back onto stage, Pedro giving one of the drums a good hit before landing in front of them and taking a step forward with each word.

"I'm that Samba, Samba master

master master master master,

Who shall sound from my

ghetto blaster blaster

blaster blaster blaster," He struck a few poses and both he and Nico made their way towards each other, dancing while facing each other.

"You dance fast but I dance faster

faster faster faster faster,

You're too slow,

You need to catch up," Nico chimed in with him, excitement swelling in his chest. A flash of yellow caught his eye but he ignored it.

"You can dance and dance but I-"

They snapped towards the audience and continued their dance

"I wanna party,

I wanna Samba,

I wanna party,

I wanna Samba,

I wanna party," The duo shared a look, their eyes shining.

"And live my life,

I wanna party

And fly~" The both of them took off, Nico landing on a box nearby. Pedro flew with the other birds circling the top of the club. The succession of "Hey"s started and the other birds joined in. Pedro squawked and landed next to Nico.

"Hey hey hey

hey hey,

HEY!" Nico and Pedro threw their wings up in the air, leaning against each other and panting heavily.

The club cheered, screaming as loud as they could for them. Nico looked around, his eyes wide in joy. The nervousness that had nearly suffocated him earlier seemed to morph into excitement. It made his whole being hum in response to everyone's calls. He glanced over to an out-of-the-way area and his eyes widened in shock. Diving from the box, he flew as fast as he could towards the three canaries that caught his eyes.

Landing in front of them, he frowned, adjusting his cap and still panting. His parents had shocked and, dare he say, proud looks on their faces. Victor, however, seemed to be trying to kill him with his mismatched eyes. What provoked such hostility, Nico would never know.

"Why?"

Gertie shook herself from her shock and her eyes welled up with tears. "Oh Nico, my little Nico."

Nico glanced around and sighed, waving for the three canaries to follow him. He flew to the exit and walked into the alley, turning to look at them when he was sure that no one from inside the club could hear them.

"Why did you leave me in the cage."

Gertie sobbed. "We thought you were d-" She squeaked, covering her beak with a hiccup. Gunther wrapped a wing around his mate and his shoulders slumped a bit.

"You didn't respond to us at all. If we had stayed any longer we wouldn't have been able to get out." Gunther murmured. His voice was deep and smoothed, only hindered by disuse.

Nico looked down. "You could have taken me with you..." Nico steeled himself. He had already made his decision. He wasn't going back on it now. Not after all he had done. "I'm staying here, in Rio. I'm not going back to the states with you."

Gertie shook her head. "You can't! Y-you're not ready yet!"

Nico put his wing on her shoulder and smiled. "Mom, I've been ready for a while."

Gertie sobbed again and wiped her eyes with her wing, smiling a bit. "You always have been a free bird haven't you? I know it won't do much, especially after this. But I'm sorry, for everything. I-I'm a horrible mother... I neglected you, I left you to DIE." She wailed and Nico hugged her, sighing.

"It's okay mom, I'm not mad at you." He couldn't stay mad at her. His dad either. Victor, however, he had no problems with. Especially now it seemed.

Pulling away, he smiled at his mom in reassurance. His dad lifted a wing and looked pointedly at Nico. Smiling to himself, Nico found himself wrapped in one of his father's rare shows of affection. Nico smiled when his father murmured something to him. He noticed Pedro by the entrance and unwillingly pulled away. He ran over to Pedro, looking back to wave at his departing family.

"What did your dad say?"

"Huh?" Nico asked.

"Your dad, what did he say to you?"

"Oh, he told me: Aim high and never look back."

Pedro hummed, smiling at the departing canaries. "Not a bad motto to go on."

Nico looked at his best friend and grinned. "Yeah, not bad at all."

This completes the story! For now. There's still the epilogue which you all will LOVE! It's gonna take you back to the fire in a different point of view.

Sorry for the long wait, but this chapter took forever! Dang Psychology class...

Anyway, so far when I think about the sequel, Nico and Pedro aren't cooperating. So, slash may or may not happen. If it does, the worst they will do is cuddle probably. They're toeing around the idea it seems.

If any of you get the urge to draw a scene from this please do and let me know so I can see them.

Please review. I do enjoy reading your thoughts on my writing and even if it's just to say hello, it's nice to know that people are still reading this. Thank you all for sticking with me!

Onto the epilogue...(Dun dun duuuuuuuunnnnn!)


	9. Epilogue

**This is important, please read: Victor is dark yellow with black on the end of all of his feathers and he has a black circle that takes up most of his face. He has a problem with his tail feathers, they are unkempt and some are longer than others, which makes it hard for him to turn while flying. He also has bicromial disorder: one eye is red and the other is brown. I forgot to mention a few of these details when I first brought him in the story.**

Disclaimer: don't own.

Victor watched as his little slept. He was sound asleep on the same peg as Victor. The little twit. He always had their parent's attention. Sure, Victor tended to be favored more but when Nico left, all his parents talked about was if he was okay. The yellow runt could die for all Victor cared. Quietly fluttering to the cage door, he opened it and glided out, his left wing working harder than his right. He clumsily landed on the window sill and squeezed through the small opening at the bottom. He grabbed the glasses he had hid in the grass the previous night and looked at the rising sun, dragging the glasses over to a dry patch of grass and painstakingly angled them. It took a while, but the canary's efforts were rewarded with a small wisp of smoke. The smoke quickly turned into a small flame, and from there it started creeping around the house.

Dropping the glasses, he flew back up to the window sill and squeezed back in. He lopsidedly flew back into the cage and closed and locked the door, walking over to the tray of seeds. He munched on them for a bit and flew back onto his peg, settling down. How he loathed the waiting game...

An idea popped into his head. He looked around before quickly leaving the cage again. Flying to the human's bathroom, he grabbed onto the handle to the medicine cabinet and pulled, sliding it to the side. Putting his foot on the "M" of a pill planner, he gripped the "T" with his beak and pulled it open. Looking at the pills, he recognized one that the humans usually passed out from. Carefully breaking off a small piece, he didn't want to swallow any himself, he picked it up and flew back to the cage. Getting a beak full of water, he landed next to Nico and slowly opened the smaller bird's beak, placing the small piece of the pill in his mouth. Tilting back the bird's head, he put their beaks together and let the water flow down Nico's throat, taking the pill with it and making Nico swallow.

Nico's eyes fluttered but he remained asleep. Victor inched back over to his spot and smiled to himself when the scent of smoke started to reach him. It wasn't too much longer now. It took a while, but smoke started to cloud around the ceiling. The sun had risen a ways and the heat was making the fire's progress quicker.

Glancing at the fire alarm, Victor closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep. Just a little longer...

A loud high pitched alarm went off, startling Gertie, his mother, and Gunther, his father, out of their sleep. The two flapped wildly and Victor mimicked them, feigning shock. Gertie dove to Nico and Victor's peg and shook the youngest canary. Flames could now be seen eating away the carpet. When Nico fell to the floor of the cage and didn't react, she wailed in despair and Victor fought back the urge to roll his eyes. Gunther landed next to her and wrapped a wing around her, his own eyes watering.

"Mom, dad. There's nothing we can do for him! We're going to _die_ if we stay here!" He dove for the cage door and, in panic of course, opened it. "We have to _go_!"

"But we can't just leave Nico here!" The fire started to surround the cage, tongues of flame licking at the stand that held it up.

"We have no choice!" He scrambled over to them and grabbed his mother's wing, pulling her towards the door. He coughed into his free wing and let his mother go, diving from the cage and flying towards the open door. He struggled against the thermals but was finally able to barely clear the door frame to the outside.

His mother flew out a few moments later, sobbing, with his father flying after her. All three of the canaries had soot covering their forms but were unharmed by the flames. It took a little while but Victor finally heard some beams fall in the house.

The infuriating cardinal that always came to see Nico nearly crashed into the three of them on the sidewalk. He was panting heavily and had a terrified look in his eyes.

"Nico...where is he?"

Victor forced back a snarl and pointed at the house. "He's still in the cage. He-" The cardinal shot off into the house and Gertie burst into tears again. The three were picked up by their owners and they moved aside as some men with a giant hose started spraying water at the house. Their owners huddled together and stared at the house, murmuring to each other. Victor found himself contemplating why he even stayed with the idiots. Humans were naïve.

Ruffling what feathers weren't held down by the pudgy human appendages, he let a smirk play on his beak as he watched the flames eat away at the house. Hopefully the cardinal died in the flames too. He didn't need any links back to him, no matter how dense the links were.

His humans lingered at the house, making Victor's stomach roll. He didn't want to be stuck here at the scene, anything could go wrong for him at this point.

After a while of loitering around the crumbling and smoldering ashes of the summer house, his humans finally walked away, arranging a hotel room for the remainder of their stay. A small pang of guilt washed over Victor, Nico _was _his little brother after all.

A few days passed without any problems, leaving Victor to his own devices. The evidence pinning him as the culprit had been destroyed in the fire and he was scot free so far. But there was something tickling at the back of his mind, like he had left a loose end somewhere.

"Victor? Come on honey, let's go see some of Rio."

Ah, another trip to the outside. Ever since Nico's death his mother had been adamant about seeing what it was the little bird had found so enthralling about the massive city. Opening the makeshift cage their owners had put them in, he and his parents flew out of the slightly open window and into the night air of Rio.

Flying below his father, he smiled a bit. The city looked nice like this: bright lights shining below him like the sky was above him, albeit more colorful. Seeing his mother start to fly lower, he angled his tail feathers as best as he could and followed her, his dad grabbing where his wings met his torso and helping him keep steady. It was awkward, but it worked.

Seeing what had caught his mother's attention, a small club in an alley not far from them, he frowned. Wasn't that the one that Nico kept gushing about? Fitting for his parents though; to want to visit this place on their last night in Rio.

Landing, the trio went inside of the club and were immediately assaulted by loud cheering and music. Gertie froze in front of them, gaping at something on the stage. A quick glance made Victor's blood boil. Nico.

He was supposed to be dead! Not singing and dancing like their mother wasn't torn up about his death. Sure, Victor had tried to kill him, but he should have at least tried to tell their mom that he was alive. Unless he knew? Was it possible? He couldn't know about the fire, it was impossible. Right?

His rage turned into uncertainty. If their parents found out...

He saw Nico glance in their direction and got his parents' attention.

"He saw us, let's wait outside." Gertie and Gunther looked at him, the former all teared up. They nodded and left the club, standing in the alley. They didn't have to wait long. Nico flew out of the club to see them, grinning.

Victor paid him no mind, keeping an eye on everyone's facial expressions. Confusion, relief, excitement, and other such emotions. Nothing hinting that he had tried to kill Nico. Gertie walked over to him and sniffled a bit, waiting for Gunther to finish saying something to Nico. The moment he finished, the three of them took off, Victor struggling slightly. Good. He wasn't following.

"Honey? Didn't you want to say something to Nico?"

Victor shook his head. "I- uh, can't believe that he's alive you know?"

She nodded at him and they made their way back to the cage and, subsequently, home.

I'm sooooo sorry for the long wait you guys! Things have been all over the place lately. So, here's Victor, my OC. You won't see him much, I'm not into the whole "focus on the OC" thing. It angers me when people do that.

Well, this is the last of this story, the sequel is on hiatus, as is all of my other stories. I just kind of lost my inspiration for everything. If any of you have something that you like to do for inspiration, let me know. Review, message, whatever floats your boat. Happy reading!


	10. Important Author Note

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I believe that the sequel to Life in Rio is canceled. My apartment burned down yesterday and my laptop was, tragically, in the inferno. So, whatever I had written on the sequel is gone and so are all my movies, Rio among them. I'm sorry for the inconvenience everyone but I just can't really get the motivation to write anything at the moment.

Thank you all for your reviews, I read every last one of them :)


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